VARIANT
ROBISON WELLS
LOUISIANA YOUNG READERS’ CHOICE NOMINEE 2012
GRADE 6-8
Study guide submitted by Erin Korosi, Youth Services Coordinator, Jefferson Parish
Library, Metairie, LA.
Title: Variant
Author: Robison Wells
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 373
SUMMARY
Benson Fisher is seventeen and fed up with his life in foster care, so when he has the
opportunity to accept a scholarship to the exclusive Maxfield Academy, he jumps at the
chance. What he doesn’t anticipate is a prisonlike atmosphere where the teachers are
nonexistent, his every move is monitored by cameras and a razor-wire fence makes
leaving an impossibility. The students at Maxfield have divided themselves into three
rival gangs: Society (those who play by the rules), Havoc (those who want power) and
Variant, aka the “V’s” (those who want out), and they maintain an uneasy truce that
keeps order. Benson joins the V’s, but his only thought is of escape. The only problem
is that no one ever has.
From the very first page, Variant is a thrill ride of a novel that will keep even reluctant
readers frantically turning the pages to find out what happens next. Through the myriad
of twists and turns to the exciting cliffhanger ending, readers learn that nothing is what it
seems.
AWARDS
Publisher's Weekly Best Books of 2011
Publisher’s Weekly and VOYA Magazine gave it Starred Reviews
AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY
Robison Wells currently lives in Holladay, Utah with his wife and three children. He
graduated from the University of Utah with a degree in political science and earned an
MBA in marketing from Brigham Young University. While Variant is his first nationally
published novel, Wells has also written three locally published previous novels that are
now out of print. He is the brother of author Dan Wells.
http://www.robisonwells.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robison_Wells
OTHER TITLES BY AUTHOR
Blackout (October 2013)
Going Dark (September 2013)
Feedback (2012)
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RELATED TITLES
Divergent by Veronica Roth. Katherine Tegen Books, 2011. 487p.
Gone by Michael Grant. HarperCollins, 2008. 576p.
Lockdown by Alexander Gordon Smith. Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2009. 273p.
Maze Runner by James Dasher. Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2009. 384p.
CLASSROOM CONNECTIONS
Science
Introduce students to robotics using one of the lesson plans below.
 “This web site is designed to help K-12 and other educators in developing or
improving courses that use robotics as a tool for teaching STEM topics or as a
topic in itself.” http://robotics.usc.edu/~agents/k-12/index.php
 A lesson plan designed to help learn how robotics can be used to help the
disabled:http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans/programs/robbie/index.ht
ml#obj
Social Studies
In Variant, the gangs act like labor unions to negotiate for contracts. Have students
research unions in the United States. They can investigate how and why labor unions
first formed, their role today, and the pros and cons of having unions.
Language Arts
 Pick one of the gangs and write a persuasive speech encouraging a new student to
join your gang.

Variant is told entirely from Benson’s point of view. Have students choose an
alternate character and retell a scene from his or her point of view. Scenes that they
can choose from could include:
 The war between the gangs before Benson arrived
 Benson’s arrival
 A paintball game
 Walnut, Jelly or Rosa being taken to detention
 Benson showing the students that Jane is a robot
 The escape at the end
Alternately, students could each be assigned a different character and all write about the
same scene from their character’s point of view.

Compare and contrast characteristics of the three gangs: Havoc, the Society and
Variant.

Read a synopsis of The Lord of the Flies by William Golding and compare and
contrast what is going on with the students at Maxfield Academy to what happened in
Lord of the Flies.
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P.E.
Throughout the novel, the school forces students to play paintball games. The same
teamwork and strategy can be used to play a similar game, Capture the Flag. The
following link provides instructions for this game: http://www.ehow.com/how_311_playcapture-flag.html.
ART
Using the description of the school from the book, draw Maxfield Academy. You could
make it an aerial view of the school, grounds, paintball field, track, walls, etc. You could
select to draw a blueprint layout of a part of the school or even details of a certain room.
The possibilities are endless.
VOCABULARY
Boarding School
Intimidate
Disregard
Disobedience
Tolerate
Scandal
Aesthetics
Malfunction
Outcropping
Gnarled
Bunker
Ghillie suit
Imprint
Silhouette
Infirmary
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Which gang would you choose to belong to and why?
2. List some differences between the school classes at Maxfield Academy and your
school? (no grades, no dividing students by grade level, no test scores, no report
cards)
3. While discussing escape on page 173, Benson suggests that all of the students
should try escaping together and Isaiah asks “How many of us have to escape to
make the deaths of the others worth it?” How would you respond?
4. Was Benson selfish for wanting to escape? Would you have tried to escape?
5. What contract would you most like to have? Why?
6. At the end of the book, it is revealed that the robots are the ones being tested.
What do you think they are being test for?
7. What are your thoughts about the ending? How would you explain Benson
finding Jane alive?
WEBSITES
Robison Wells Official Website – Variant Stuff
http://www.robisonwells.com/2012/09/variant-bonus-features-chapters-1-3/
This section of the website provides additional content for each chapter. The author
discusses thought process while writing and his rationale for certain narrative decisions.
At the end, he also provides pictures of the characters as he envisioned them.
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